There are books that deserve second and thirds chances. Maybe more. Reading is a very subjective endeavour and highly circumstantial, as it depends sometimes on moods and personal settings, and often on the personal relationship with a certain topic and even author. But given its subjective matter, one may also acknowledge the fact that some books are simply either not her/his cup of tea and that they are very objective considerations for not liking a book.
Books about Iran are always becoming the writing hit of critiques, for all the good and bad reasons. One good reason is that there are good, insightful writers coming from Iran, writing in English, although there may be even more better writer writing in Persian not yet translated. Books on the English - or generally Western - market do follow though some market-oriented considerations and there is a certain canon that allows the publications of books coming from non-Western realms. I will not right not go too much into this, maybe on another occasion.
Aria by Nazanine Hozar was described as ´A Doctor Zhivago´ of Iran, after the name of a novel by the Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak, the recipient of 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature for the above mentioned work. Dr. Zhivago is a fresco of the Russian Revolution turned into a meditation of art and intellectual life in general. Pasternak was not a disident, although his novel created him lots of problems with the Soviet establishment, and he died in his country and he was not in prison either. The 1966 movie based on the novel - starring Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago - was a very popular forbidden movie among Eastern European middle class intellectuals in the 1980s, traded illegally on VHS video tapes. At almost the same time, the works of Pasternak - his poetry, inspired by his collaboration with the Moscow Futurist group is much better that the popular novel - were intensively translated into French and published by left-wing edition houses in France. It was the wind of change in the air and everyone was getting ready. I would label Dr. Zhivago under ´dissident chic´, and I don´t give any credit to dissident acts branded like this. Real dissidents are those risking their life and freedom for telling the truth to power. In Russia, Iran, Turkey, Belarus and elsewhere, people of all folds of life are brutally repressed for their courage to say ´no´, or write critical pieces of work against the establishment. Some of them may never see the light again to share their stories, as they disappear in the hands of the secret police. It´s life or death threat, folks, not a selfie-game.
In the story told by Nazanine Hozar which starts in 1953 and ends in the days of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, a child, which was named Aria - in Persian it is usually a male name, meaning ´noble´ and associated with proto-Iranians and Hindus -, is found on the streets of Tehran. Her fate lead her from a heartless woman who is abusing her in the most cruel ways, to a rich widow converted to Islam from Zoroastrianism who is investing in her education. It is a novel of coming of age, with Aria´s life followed closely from her early childhood until she is a married woman, with a school sweetheart, an Armenian belonging to a family that used to be close to the Shah. The political discussions and the religious topics of discontent are running in the background of the story which gives authenticity, but the story itself is told on different voices without creating a seamed narrative in itself.
Aria´s voice, for instance, as a child, sounded so distorted and inadequate for her age. The dialogues between characters are so bland that one can go pages of discussions that are not going anywhere and will never go. It makes feel sometimes that the characters are lifeless puppets thrown up from a scene to another by the author but not fitting well any frame.
The moment when everything woke up and seemed to finally get back to a certain internal life of the story is at the end, when there are some spectacular switches and unexpected changes happening. Revolutionary times may bring some good inspiration, it seems. Although I was about to give up this book more than twice, I´m glad that I was resilient enough to continue until the end of the story as it finally offered a certain degree of denouement.
One may not like all the books and hopefully there are so many good books around - especially taking place in Iran - worth reading.
Rating: 2.5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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